Dr Ian Conrich, Director of the Centre for New Zealand Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London has been named the Air New Zealand New Zealander of the Year 2008.

 

On behalf of Dr Ian Conrich, Dominic Alessio accepts the award

 from Sarah Hopkins, European Marketing Manager for Air New Zealand

Dr Conrich recently stated “that over the last decade New Zealand Studies, particularly in the UK and Europe, has made significant strides in becoming a recognisable and serious discipline.  The subsequent development of the Centre for New Zealand Studies, a unique archive, resource and research base at Birkbeck, University of London, is the realisation of the hard work and commitment of so many people, not least the Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, Sir Graeme Davies.” 

Sarah Hopkins, from Air New Zealand, sponsors of the award for the last four years said in presenting the award to Dr Conrich “While everyone on the shortlist this year again showed just how many Kiwis there are making substantial contributions to promote and represent New Zealand across a wide cross section of life in the UK, Dr Conrich’s contribution is marked by a true Kiwi determination and spirit to create something unique of long-lasting benefit for many people.  It absolutely demonstrates how a country with over 4 million people and one individual can make a lasting impression in a country with over 60 million people.” 

Ian, who unfortunately wasn’t able to receive the Award in person, commented that “This award is a fantastic honour and would not have been possible without my colleagues.  I would like to accept the award on behalf of the New Zealand Studies community and the many supporters of the Centre for New Zealand Studies.”  The Award was collected on his behalf by Vice Chair of the New Zealand Studies Association, Dr Dominic Alessio.

The finalists for the award were: 

• Dr Ian Conrich, director of the Centre for New Zealand Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London

• Dr Chris Pugsley, military historian

• Rosanna Raymond and Amiria Salmond, curators of the Pasifika Styles exhibition at the University of Cambridge

They are all recognised for the contribution that they have made to enhancing New Zealand’s profile in the UK over the past year.

 

The award, was established by the New Zealand Society in 1999, and previous winners have included -  New Zealand memorial architect, Jon Rennie; Susan and Tom Glynn, New Zealand restaurateurs in London, golfer Michael Campbell; Secretary General of the Commonwealth Rt. Hon Don McKinnon; and New Zealand celebrity chef Peter Gordon.

 

The winner of this year's award was announced at the New Zealand Society’s Waitangi Day Dinner which was held at the Drapers’ Hall, on Friday 8^th February 2008.  

Sue Bonham was the lucky winner of 2 return flights to New Zealand, courtesy of Air New Zealand, for nominating someone in this category.

Joining the long-established Air New Zealand New Zealander of the Year Award; the New Zealand Society presents two new awards in association with New Zealand News Ltd.  The winners of the following two awards have been announced, and the awards were presented at the Waitangi Day Dinner.

Inaugural New Zealand
Inspired Lifetime Achievement Award 2008

www.globalkiwis.com

Connecting Kiwis around the world

Inaugural Global Kiwis Young Achiever Award 2008

Hayley Westenra is the winner of the Global Kiwis Young Achiever Award. A 20 year old, New Zealand soprano who has been a singing sensation since first releasing an album at 16 years of age. Her debut album Pure, reached number one in the UK classical charts in 2003, making her the fastest-selling debut classical artist of all time

Sophie Westenra accepting the award on behalf of her sister Hayley

This Award was established to recognise a young Kiwi under the age of 35, at the start of their career, who has made remarkable achievements in their field of endeavour in the UK achieving recognition on at least a national scale if not on a European or global scale.

Zena Daysh, CNZM is the winner of the inaugural NZ Inspired Lifetime Achievement Award for her lifetime of dedication to influencing the thinking of Commonwealth governments in creating policies in support of ecological and sustainable communities.
 

The Right Honourable Don McKinnon, Commonwealth Secretary General, presents the award to Zena Daysh

This Award was established to recognise a New Zealander who has worked steadily and consistently over a number of years and deserves to be recognised for their cumulative efforts over a long and successful career or contribution to public life.

Dr Ian Conrich

BA, MA, PhD, Dip TEFL - Founding Director of the Centre for New Zealand Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.

Ian has been the driving force behind the establishment of the Centre for New Zealand Studies, a unique resource base, archive and museum, which took seven years to develop and was opened in February 2007.  The Centre builds on Ian's passionate work with the New Zealand Studies Association (NZSA), for which he has been Chair since 1996.  In the twelve years with NZSA he has organised thirteen international conferences on topics relating to New Zealand.  The next conference to be held in Florence in July, on the theme of New Zealand and the Mediterranean, has 71 speakers from thirteen countries.  At the Centre, Ian runs a series of public seminars and film screenings with 41 such events in the first two seasons.  These are an extension of the regular New Zealand sessions, which he ran at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, from 1996 to 2000.  In 1997, he established an imprint, Kakapo Books, specifically to produce books on New Zealand Studies, and has to date published nine titles.  He has secured a special issue of the Harvard Review on New Zealand literature for Autumn 2008, for which he is a consultant editor.  He is also acting as a special consultant for a major retrospective of New Zealand film in Wroclaw, Poland, in July 2008.  An authority on New Zealand film, he has co-edited two books, New Zealand Filmmakers and Contemporary New Zealand Cinema, to mark the 30th anniversary of the New Zealand Film Commission.  He has edited or co-edited a further nine books and journals including New Zealand - A Pastoral Paradise?, and New Zealand Fictions: Literature and Film, and he is the author of the forthcoming book New Zealand Cinema. 

Ian Conrich

Dr Pugsley, a former career army officer and an infantry lieutenant-colonel, became a full-time military historian in 1987.  In 1994, he became Writing Fellow at Victoria University, Wellington and went on to teach at the University of New England, Australia from 1996 to 1999.  He is currently Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Adjunct Senior Fellow at New Zealand's University of Canterbury.  His primary area of interest is 20th century New Zealand, Australian, Canadian and British Commonwealth military history, with a particular focus on Gallipoli, and the Western Front.

Rosanna Raymond and Amiria Salmond

Co-curators of the Pasifika Styles exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

Rosanna Raymond is a performance and installation artist, a published poet and writer. In 2006 she was the Leverhulme Artist in Residence at Cambridge University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.  As a producer and commentator on contemporary, urban, pacific culture Rosanna helped establish Style Pasifika at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland.  Now based in London, she has curated exhibitions, participated by invitation in academic research projects in Oxford and the US, and undertaken several international artist residences, as well as been an active member of the UK based groups community group, Ngati Ranana and Beats of Polynesia.  Rosanna is currently preparing for a residency in San Francisco with the De Young Museum

Amiria Salmond is a curator and lecturer in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, where she initiated the Pasifika Styles exhibition together with Rosanna Raymond. Amiria has curated and designed exhibitions at the Tairawhiti Museum in New Zealand and she also studies and practices Maori weaving. Her book “Museums, Anthropology and Imperial Exchange” has been published by Cambridge University Press.

Zena Daysh

CNZM, Executive Vice Chair of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC).

Her passionate interest in human ecology, led firstly to the establishment of the Malta Human Environment Council which later became the CHEC in 1969. Zena founded the council in order to influence the thinking of Commonwealth governments in creating policies in support of ecological and sustainable communities. CHEC is a human ecological network that has established links in almost half of the Commonwealth countries. Zena continues to travel to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings to champion her pioneering charity, and was most recently in Uganda for the 2007 CHOGM. Her last visit to New Zealand was in March 2007 where she attended and was a prominent leader at the Commonwealth Local Government Conference.

Born in New Zealand in the 1910s, Zena spent WWII in the United Kingdom, before returning to New Zealand at the conclusion of the war, to help formulate industrial relations legislation with the Department of Labour and Treasury. Zena’s father was the mayor of New Plymouth and her grandfather, the mayor of Blenheim.
 

A 20 year old, New Zealand soprano who has been a singing sensation since first releasing an album at 16 years of age. Her first album Pure, reached number one in the UK classical charts in 2003, making her the fastest-selling debut classical artist of all time. It is also the best selling classical album of the 21st Century and to date, Hayley has sold 4 million albums worldwide. Last year, Hayley released her third album in which she interprets the traditional songs of New Zealand and Ireland.

Hayley has performed for dignitaries around the world, including the Queen (three times in one week!) and sang at the dedication of the New Zealand Memorial in London in 2006. She is one of the youngest UNICEF ambassadors, is involved in the Women’s Environmental Network and regularly sings the national anthem at All Black matches in the northern hemisphere.